


Star-Crossed

by leowritestuff



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (why is this not a tag), Allura (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Allura (Voltron)-centric, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Episode: s01e01 The Rise of Voltron, F/M, Hunk (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Kerberos Mission, Pre-Canon, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:26:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23030059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leowritestuff/pseuds/leowritestuff
Summary: Once Lance turns 17, he switches place with his soulmate. Only problem, his soulmate is an alien princess stuck in cyrosleep for 10,000 years.--When Allura awakes, she finds herself in a place she's never been before, in a body she's doesn't recognized. The worst thing of all, she has no idea what happened to Altea, and no way to find out.
Relationships: Allura/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soulmates switch bodies after the youngest turns 17, so this takes place before, on, and right after Lance's 17th birthday, so it takes place before the series but after Kerberos. It's also during summer, so Lance was with his family (that is, before Lance and Allura switched places.)

Lance tossed and turned in his bed, a wide smile on his face. He couldn't go to sleep, he was way too giddy! He was turning 17 tomorrow, and if he was lucky, he'd be waking up in a completely different bed. In other words, he'd switch places with his soulmate! Soulmates weren't hereditary but rather a 1 in 10 chance, and none of his family had a soulmate, so Lance was sure he'd be the one. He'd been fascinated with soulmates ever since he was little.

Lance took a deep breath in, then out. "Okay I really need to go to sleep."

He settled back in, putting his sleep mask back on his face, listening to the sound of the ocean past his house.

...He still couldn't get himself to relax.

What was his soulmate going to be like? Would it be a girl? Maybe even a boy? Would they be pretty? What would they be like? What would they think of him?

Eventually, Lance fell asleep, drifting off to thoughts of his could be soulmate.

When he awoke, he was cold and faint, and he fell into someone else's arms.

\--

Cold terror surged through Allura as she finally awoke, reaching out and gasping,"Father!"

Father was not here.

She wasn't even sure where _here_ was. Glass window on her walls, pictures and posters of people she didn't recognize. Stars, fake, fake stars glowed on the ceiling.

Allura took a deep breath, trying to steady her breath and the cold lightning sparking in her gut. Panicking would do no good to help figure out what was going on.

She wanted her Father.

Every time Allura closed her eyes, fire blazed. Altea, on fire. Father, standing in front of her, saying goodbye.

She had survived. Had Father survived? Coran? ...Altea?

Allura took another deep breath, and ripped the cover (not her's- it's not her's, too thin, way to thin) off herself. She could not let herself subcome to her fear, she had to act.

It was hot. Suffocatingly so. She thinks of the fire, of Altea. It's hard for her to breathe.

Allura pushes forward. There's a door infront of her. Maybe if she opens it, she'll break whatever this is. This, this dream. This _nightmare_. She'll be back at home, in the Castle, with Father. Altea will be fine, they will be fine. Everything will be fine.

Allura throws the door open. There's a mirror, infront of her, and she rushes towards it.

She doesn't recognize herself. Her hair is too short, too dark. Her skin too light, eyes too dark. Her markings are completely gone, and ears short and round and ugly.

She doesn't recognize herself. Why doesn't she recognized herself?

Allura closes her eyes, sits down, and cries.

\--

Rachel is texting one of her friends, they had wanted to wish her a happy birthday after all, waiting at the dining table for her twin brother. He always sleeps in late, but this is ridiculous, it's not _just_ his birthday. She wants to eat breakfast already, come on.

"Rachel, mija, can you go check on Lance?" Mama asks, and Rachel can tell she's worried with the way she's glancing up stars. 

"Si, Mama," Rachel responds, and places her phone on the table.

It would be much easier if Lance would've just woken up on time, but Rachel figures she can do this. Then they'll be able to actual eat. Besides, Rachel doesn't want to worry Mama.

Rachel is pretty sure Lance is alright. He probably just stayed up too late playing video games. Or maybe even worrying about his soulmate, knowing him. At least, she's pretty sure Lance is alright.

Rachel gets outside Lance's room and knocks loud. She yells,"You better be decent!" and waits for a half second.

She... doesn't get a response. He's probably asleep.

Rachel opens the door. Lance's bed is empty.

Okay, that's a bit... worrying.

Then Rachel notices Lance's bathroom door is open, and goes to it. She waits for a second, listening. 

It's quiet.

Carefully, Rachel walks into Lance's bathroom.

"Lance," Rachel sighs in relief. He's there, slumped over in front of his mirror.

Rachel rushes to him, patting his face gently to wake him up.

Lance groans, slowly lifting his eyes.

He blinks and his eyes focus on Rachel.

Lance pulls out of Rachel's grip, eyes wide. (They're also bloodshot, Rachel notices. He was crying?)

"Who are you?" Lance breathes, voice quiet and fragile.

He doesn't sound like him. It's still his voice, but Rachel knows his brother and he not that gentle. And if Rachel isn't mistaken, the voice also carries a british accent.

It is clear that this is not Lance.

"You're Lance's soulmate!"

\--

When Allura wakes again, a girl is sitting in front of her. She doesn't know this girl at all. She doesn't have markings, and she has the same small, round ears.

"Who are you?" Allura asks, voice coming out much quieter, much more fragile than it should. It's not at all how she's been taught to talk to strangers.

She wants to ask more. _Where am I? Why do I look like this? (Do I still look like this-_ Allura notes _\- like you?) Is this real?_

"You're Lance's soulmate!" The girl says, smiling wide, and before Allura knows it she's rapped up tight in a hug.

Allura stiffens. Her teaching says that this is not the right way to act, but that part is so small Allura barely hears it. It feels like the girl is speaking a made up language. Allura doesn't understand anything of what the girl is saying. She doesn't understand any of this.

"Who are you?" Allura repeats,"What are you talking about?" All she wants is answers. Please, please, give her answers.

The girl pulls back again. "The name's Rachel. What do you mean, what am I talking about?" The girl- Rachel- is looking at her like she's crazy. Allura is not crazy. _(She feels crazy_ _.)_

"Who is Lance, what are soulmates, please I don't understand." Tears prick at Allura's eyes. _She wants her Father._

"You don't know what soulmates are?" Rachel asks, yet again looking at Allura likes she's crazy. She's not crazy, she's not.

(Is this the reason? Has she gone insane?)

(She wants her Father.)

Rachel explains what a soulmate is, what it means. Almost everything clicks in place, almost everything _makes_ _sense_. She is in the body of a boy named Lance. A boy who is her soulmate. The boy who's supposed to be the love of her life. She doesn't know what to feel about that right now. But it means that this place is Lance's home, and that this girl, Rachel, is Lance's sibling. 

What it doesn't explain... "Why do your ears look like that?" Allura asks next. 

"My ears?" Rachel asks,"What's wrong with my ears?" 

_They're hideous. "_ They're so... round." Allura says instead.

"And yours aren't?" Rachel asks, the corner of her lips curling up.

"Well, they currently are I suppose. However, in my body they're much more pointed." Allura gestures, forming the shape with her hands.

"Like elf ears?" Rachel asks.

Allura... does not know what those are. She wonders, briefly, if she is on an alien planet. It would make sense. Why she doesn't know of the concept of soulmates even though they seem so commonplace here. Why neither Lance nor Rachel have markings or the right ears. Why their coloring seems so dull. Why she doesn't know what elf means.

"What planet are we on?"

"Um, Earth?" Rachel blinks.

Ah. Not Altea. ...Not Altea. She doesn't- she doesn't even know if Altea- if Altea survived. If Father survived. Is it still in danger? Has Altea already been destroyed?

And Lance. What does this mean for him?

"Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but are you an alien?" Rachel asks after a moment.

"Altean," Allura clarifies. Whether or not Altea even... exists anymore. _(It does, it does. She doesn't believe herself, but she can't believe anything else_ _. Her heart could not take it_ _.)_ "But yes. My name is Allura, Princess of Altea."

Rachel gasps,"No way. Not only are you an alien, you're a princess too? Lance would be so happy to meet you."

Allura does not think about what could have happened to Lance, to her body. Instead, she thinks about what it means that Lance is happy about the fact she is a princess. She wonders what it says about him.

Allura nods, confirming her status.

Soon after that, Veronica, another sister of Lance's- this one older than her, came and brought them down to breakfest.

\--

Earth did not have advanced enough technology for Allura to get anywhere close to Altea. Earth had not been a known planet, not even on the outer edges of the known universe. Earthlings haven't even gone past their solar system yet.

Allura would have to depend on Lance to come find her.

It wouldn't be hard, take maybe a few hours at most. But hours turned into days, and days turned into weeks.

Before Allura had awoken in Lance's body, her Father had been putting her in cyrosleep. Certainly, Lance would try to find her, and find his way home. From what Allura knows of him, he would be incredibly excited to meet his soulmate. What's more, is that Lance would try to return home to his family, and his planet. They where the same in that. Allura would do anything to return home.

A month passes, and Allura finally admits to herself that Lance may never come home.

Allura finally admits to herself that she may never return home. That she likely doesn't have a home anymore.

She goes out underneath the stars, dressed in the few pink clothes that Lance- that she has, and she mourns. She mourns for her Father. She mourns for Coran. She mourns for her family, her friends. She mourns for every individual Altean. She mourns for Altea, for her planet _._ She mourns for _her home_.

She mourns for Lance too. For the boy she'll never get to know.

A few days later, Allura breaks the news to Lance's family _(would they, in time, become Allura's family too?),_ and together, they mourn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry Lance isn't dead. Allura just doesn't realize it's 10,000 years in the future and thinks the Castle of Lions was destroyed along with Altea.


	2. Chapter 2

A place called the Garrison calls Lance's family, asking about Lance returning to school.

Lance's father looks back at Allura. He shakes his head, and starts to speak-

"I'll go." Allura says, standing proud and tall.

Lance's father gives Allura a look. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Allura nods, staring firm, challenging him to dare attempt to change her mind. "I am sure."

Lance's father merely looks at Allura even more weirdly, but tells the Garrison that 'Lance' will be returning to school.

\--

Lance's older sister, Veronica, helps Allura pack for the Garrison. Veronica, too, goes to the Garrison.

"I'm there for college, you're going for highschool," Veronica explains.

"What's the difference?" Allura asks, as she packs Lance's- though, she supposes, now her- clothes into the bag. She wishes that Lance had more pink, so it would reflect her mood, but she doesn't dare say this out loud. Changing Lance's wardrobe feels... wrong somehow.

"High school is for the first 4 years, when you're still a minor- that is, under 18. Well, some kids turn 18 during the 4th year, but they rarely start school at 18. During high school, you have your basic classes, like math, english, history, and science, but you also can have a few specialized classes depending on which track you take. These tracks are pilot, engineer, and communications. Each one is required on a 3 person ship, and it prepares you to fill one of these roles if you ever fly. Pilot is split into two classes, fighter and cargo pilot, depending on how well you can fly."

"Which path was Lance sorted into?" Allura hopes it's fighter pilot.

"Pilot. Last year he got bumped up to fighter." Veronica explains.

Allura smiles.

"I was so proud of him when he did," Veronica smiles sadly,"You should've heard him when we called home together. It was all he would tell our family about for a week."

Allura chuckles, imagining it. She wonders, briefly, what it would've been like to know Lance in person. His family speaks so highly of him. Lance seems... almost charming. Silly, enthusiastic, ambitious, caring, and loyal. Allura thinks that maybe she could've liked someone like that, even if his ears are hideous. It seems so cruel, really, for fate to claim they are meant to be, and yet rip them apart.

Allura's smile falls.

Veronica goes on to explain college, and Allura mostly listens. It's interesting, the differences.

"Um, hey, can I ask you something?" Veronica says, holding one outfit of Lance's garrison uniform gently in her hands.

"Yes?" Allura asks, pausing what she is doing. Veronica seems... worried almost, and that worries Allura.

"Why did you... agree to go to the Garrison?" Veronica sits down across from Allura, placing the garrison uniform between them.

Allura looks down at it. "I- ...I don't quite understand what you are getting at."

"Ya know, you didn't have to go. You may be in Lance's body, but you're still your own person. None of us are going to expect you to act like Lance, or do what Lance would do. We want you to do what you want."

Allura picks up the uniform, and studies it. It's nothing like Altean uniforms, or at least none Allura had seen. It's too simple, too dull.

"If I may be honest with you-" Allura starts.

Veronica nods, reassuring Allura.

"-I do not know what I want. With my kingdom, my planet gone, I have no duty anymore. No sense of purpose. Perhaps, in going to the Garrison, I may find a new purpose."

Veronica raises an eyebrow. "By pretending to be someone you're not?"

Allura is quiet. She does not know what to say to that. She wants to protest, but deep down she wonders if Veronica is right.

Allura takes the outfit, and places it in the bag. It had been Lance's bag.

Veronica does not say a word.

\--

Allura goes to the Garrison. It suprises her, how easy the classes and the flying is. She guesses she expected more.

Allura meets Hunk too, her roommate and apparently Lance's best friend.

Hunk is so excited to see Lance again. Allura swore he cracked one of her ribs with how tight his hug was.

Allura didn't have the heart to tell Hunk the truth.

So, with everything she knew about Lance, she pretended to be him.

"You sure you're okay man?" Hunk had asked,"You're not acting like yourself."

"I took an etiquette class over the summer, dude." Allura explained. Dude felt (and still feels) weird on her tongue.

Allura does not believe that Hunk bought it, but at the least he did not question.

\--

At one point, the name Keith gets brought up, and when Allura expressed that she did not know who he was, Hunk looked at her as if she grew a second head.

That day, Allura had resolved to call Rachel and ask her about people Lance would know that she does not.

Most notable had been Keith, Lance's rival, and Shiro, Lance's hero. Another name too had stuck out to Allura, Jenny, one of Lance's (apparently, many) crushes.

Allura's heart pangs with jealousy for a moment, at the thought someone held Lance's heart but she was not able to. The jealousy quickly fades into sadness, as Allura knows she'll never get to meet him.

Then Allura wonders, too, what Lance would've thought about her. Lance had many, many crushes, none of which had lasted very long. Would he even care for her? Was she wasting part of her heart for someone who wasn't worth the energy?

"I'm sure if my brother actually got his head out of his ass long enough to pay attention, he'd love you." Rachel had assured Allura.

"Thank you," Allura had responded, but she wasn't sure if she believed it. She would never have a chance to know.

\--

Early into the year, a new student comes in, and takes the place of Allura and Hunk's commication officer. It frustrates Allura that the garrison would simply choose to break up a team, people who already had trust and understanding between them. But, much the same, Allura is willing to get to know her new teammate, Pidge.

Simply put, Pidge is not willing to get to know Allura. Nor Hunk, for that matter.

They start to fail at the simulation because they do not know how to work as a team. Because Pidge refuses to be part of one.

This frustrates Allura to no end.

One night, Allura decides to drag Hunk and Pidge along with her for a 'night on the town' (for, she feels, this is a Lance thing to do), in order to bond as a team. Hunk relunctantly agrees to go with her, and now all she has to do is find Pidge. They come to the rooftop and find Pidge with headphones sitting at the edge.

Allura crosses to him, and taps gently on Pidge's shoulder. 

"AAHH!" Pidge screeches, jumping back. 

"Lance! Hunk! What are you doing here?"

"We came to get you." Allura states. "We need to bond as a team, so I figured we could go into town and hang out."

Before Pidge can answer, Hunk speaks, reaching out to touch the tech the headphones are connected to. "Did you build this? It doesn't look like Garrison tech."

Pidge smacks Hunk's hand away. Hunk frowns. "Yeah, I built it. It can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system. Which I'd much rather be doing than sneaking into a bar or whatever your plan was, Lance."

Allura thinks she's heard of a bar before, but she can't recall what it is, so she says nothing on the subject. "Why are you trying to scan so far?" Allura thinks about what is on the edge of Earth's solar system and what is so important, and then it clicks. "Are you trying to find out information on the Kerberos Mission?"

Pidge tenses up immediately, and Allura knows she's struck a cord. The Kerberos Mission is important to Pidge, and if Allura can just figure out _why_ , they would understand each other better and become a better team. "Why?" Allura asks.

"Second warning Hunk!" Pidge says instead of answering Allura's question. Now noticed, Allura sees Hunk take his fingers off what Allura assumes to be a processor. 

Pidge doesn't say anymore. 

"Yeah, like, you're about to curse out a teacher or something when they mention the crash," Hunk says, looking at Pidge but glancing back at his tech.

Pidge glares.

"I don't think it was a crash," Pidge starts,"It doesn't make any sense! Shiro is the best pilot of his generation, pilot error doesn't make _any_ sense. And I _know_ Sam and Matt Holt, they wouldn't have done something to cause a crash either. It _had_ to be something else!"

Hunk prods at Pidge's tech.

"STOP TOUCHING MY EQUIPMENT!" Pidge screeches.

"Anyways-" Pidge glares harder at Hunk, who scooches away like an injured puppy. Pidge lets out some air,"-I've been scanning around Kerberos, and I've been picking up chatter. Alien chatter."

"You think the Kerberos crew was abducted by aliens?" Allura asks. A cold sense of dread fills her stomach. Have the galra come this far, to an innocent planet with people who don't even understand what is happening, and have no technology to defend themselves once they do. Allura wonders briefly what the connection between Pidge, and Sam and Matt Holt is. She wonders if they are already dead.

"Whoa, aliens? Like, literal aliens?" Hunk pulls back into the trio, eyes wide with excitement.

"I don't have any substainsial proof on the abduction theory, but nothing disproves it. " Pidge nods at Hunk. "They've been going crazy recently. Most of the time, I can't understand what they're saying, but they've been repeating the same word."

Pidge picks up her notepad and taps to it. "Voltron."

Allura lets out a gasp, and opens her mouth to speak- before she stops and realizing, Lance would have no idea what Voltron is. Or how important it is. Why are they- the galra, Allura is sure of it now- looking here? Is one of the lions here, on Earth?

She hopes, briefly (no matter what it means for Earth), that it is. She hopes, more than that, that whichever lion it is, she can pilot it. That she can _fight_.

Pidge gives Allura a look, and Allura gives her back some bullshit excuse. Both Pidge and Hunk take it.

Right after that, something crashes. Iverson yells over the PA, sending the school on lockdown.

Pidge pulls out his binoculars,"It's a ship!"

Allura takes them, ignoring Pidge's sound of alarm. It is a ship. A galran ship. Allura scowls, ignoring the binoculars to find a weapon.

She can't find one.

Never the less, Allura rushes after the ship.

"Lance!" Pidge and Hunk say, chasing after Allura.

"This is the worst team building excerise ever," Hunk says, but Allura barely even notices. She has to get to that ship.

They come to a ridge, and Hunk holds Allura back from racing down it.

"Dude, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Hunk says.

"Let me go, I have to go down there,"Allura responds, fighting against Hunk. She has to get down there, _she has to_ _._ She could do something! Change something! Actually have a chance. She can't waste another second-

"Lance, snap out of it!" Hunk raises his voice, hands firm on Allura's shoulders,"What's going on with you?" 

"I have to go down there, please,"Allura pleads, and she looks back down at the galran ship- 

It's covered with garrison agents. Near it, a tent is already set up, bustling with activity.

Allura glances to the side at Pidge, who's managed to hack into the tent and pull up the security camera's feed. "What can you see? Is anybody hurt?"

Hunk looks between Allura, Pidge, and the garrison tent that's already set up. Pidge gives Hunk a look, and Hunk nods.

"Lance, look at me,"Hunk says slowly," Dude, you're panicking."

Allura looks at Hunk, and slowly stops trying to struggle out of his grip. Hunk lets her go. Allura looks back down at the tent.

"Lance, you need to breath. Can you breathe with me?" Hunk starts to breathe in, keeping his focus on Allura.

Allura focuses back on Hunk and breathes. In, hold, out. In, hold, out. In. Hold. Out. Breathe in. 

Breathe out.

"We need to do something," Allura says, finally. "We need to help." _I can't sit back and do nothing. Not again._

"No one's hurt,"Pidge chimes in, giving Allura a look. A look like she's fragile- like if he said the wrong thing, Allura would break. She's _fine_ , really. "Shiro was in the ship, the garrison is checking on him."

"Shiro?" Allura echoes. He had been Lance's hero, and the pilot of the Kerberos mission. For him to be back... "Can I see?"

Pidge gives Allura the same look.

"I will be fine." Pidge does not budge. "I promise."

Pidge relents, and lets Allura look at the screen.

A man, Allura presumes is Shiro- he looks like the posters anyways, is strapped down to a table. He's not injured- or not _currently_ injured, but is most definitely panicked. He doesn't look the same as the posters anyways, not with white hair, the scar across his nose, and the robotic prosethetic arm. It's not any technology Allura recognizes, but it reminds her of galra. Allura tenses, and forces herself to breathe.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Shiro asks Iverson.

"Calm down, Shiro. We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests."

"You have to listen to me!" Shiro yells,"They destroy worlds!" Shiro tugs at the restraints, trying to break free,"Aliens are coming!"

"The galra..." Allura mouths to herself. She knew it. She knew it, _she knew it._ Cold electricity sparks through her, lighting her on fire. She can't move, she can't _breathe_.

A hand on her shoulder. It's Hunk, giving her a worried look. Hunk breathes, in, out.

In. Out. Allura breathes.

"Looks like he's not dead in space after all," Hunk states, monotone. He's more focused on Allura, on her.

"Where's the rest of the crew?" Pidge asks, his eyes roaming the screen.

Iverson speaks again, ignoring Shiro's panic. "Do you know how long you've been gone?"

"I don't know, months? Years? Look, there's no time! Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They're probably on their way. They'll destroy us. We have to find Voltron!"

"Voltron!" Pidge mimics.

"If Shiro is right," Allura starts to say, and she knows he is. "We have to help him, and we _have_ to find Voltron."

Hunk looks at Allura suspiciously,"Not that I don't, like, agree about helping Shiro- I don't agree with finding Voltron, getting in the way of homocidal aliens sounds like a very good way to get hurt or you know, _killed-_ not a very big fan of that- but... why do you care?"

"Why do I care?!" Allura starts, and she can't believe what she's hearing from Hunk. That he wouldn't do anything, _anything_ to help. "Do you even hear yourself? Do you know how _selfish_ you sound? Billions of people's lives are at stake! I am not going to sit back and _do nothing._ " Allura hisses. "Not again."

Allura rushes off, down to save Shiro. Down to find Voltron, down to do anything to make up for the fact she did _nothing_ while Altea _burned_.

"Woah, Lance!" Pidge calls after her, shutting the screen on the keyboard.

Vaguely, Allura hears Hunk say,"This may sound crazy but... I don't think that's Lance."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I meant for this to be the last chapter but man that moment when Shiro lands back on Earth and stuff was so much longer than I remembered and then this happened.


	3. Chapter 3

Hunk and Pidge raced after “Lance,” who was heading down to Shiro. “Lance” being in quotation marks because whoever this was, this was definitely, definitely not his best friend Lance. It makes no sense for Lance to get this panicked about this- that was Hunk’s thing. Nor does it make sense for Lance to get so defensive either, like it’s personal? It’s not the first thing Hunk had noticed off about Lance either. “Lance” had been very posh sometimes, it was weird? And “Lance” was almost always wearing pink, he was wearing it now too. Sure, Lance likes the color, but he’s always been… defensive about his masculinity, he wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing it that often.

This person could be Lance’s soulmate, and that would explain why they acted so different… but it doesn’t explain everything else? If they were a soulmate, they wouldn’t need to act like Lance. Everyone knows what soulmates are, there isn’t a use to hide. And then the way that “Lance” got so panicked about the alien chatter and the alien ship, like they know something? Like it’s personal?

“I’m not going to sit back and do nothing, not again,” rings in Hunk’s ears. “Not again.” What did that mean?

The only theory Hunk can possibly think of is that whoever they are, they are an alien. It would explain how they know so much of this Voltron and galra stuff, and how it could be personal. But it doesn’t explain how they got into Lance’s body.

Hunk thinks of all those body stealing alien movies, and he can feel the anxiety rise in his stomach. He knows he’s being irrational, and that's just the fear talking but… what if it’s true? It’s not like anything else about this night has been, well, rational. Hunk thinks he’s going to be sick. He really, really, really hopes Lance is okay. He’s going to do what it takes to make sure of it though, or at least Hunk hopes he can.

“Hunk,” Pidge hisses besides him, and he realizes that oh- they’re crouched behind a rock outside the tent already.

“Where’s “Lance”?” Hunk asks, making air quotes as he speaks. Hunk wrings his hands together, trying to keep his nervous energy in control.

“Just ahead of us,” Pidge points to a rock just slightly closer.

Hunk peers over Pidge and his rock, noticing “Lance” crouched behind it. They’re watching the guards, like they’re getting ready to pounce.

“Hunk, I don’t think you’re going to like this, but we need to help “Lance.” Pidge states, he mimicking the way Hunk had been referring to “Lance.”

“Well “Lance” looks like they’re about to attack the guards and I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to get in trouble. Or like, injured. Or dead.” Hunk pauses, breathe caught in his throat. He really really doesn’t want to do this. “..You’re just saying that because you want to save Shiro.”

“I do want to save Shiro,” Pidge rolls his eyes,”But also, do you think we’re going to stop “Lance?” You already say what happened when we tried.”

“Right, right,” Hunk responds, and his guts go uneasy (well, uneasier). “Do you know how selfish you sound?” It makes him feel bad, because if “Lance” is right about this, and there are people in danger, he’s not doing anything to help. But, it’s not like it’s his job right? He can barely keep himself together to save his best friend. He really doesn’t want to do this. “Lets go, then.”

Pidge nods, and quickly- but silently- moves to “Lance.” Hunk follows.

\--

Allura whips her head back at the sound, and sees Pidge and Hunk behind her.

“What do you want?” Allura hisses.

“We’re going to help,” Pidge says.

“Why do I find that hard to believe?” Allura responds, and her gaze drifts over to Hunk, who squirms under it. A small, sick, part of herself is satisfied at the very least that her words got through to him.

“I want to save Shiro too,” Pidge responds. “He’ll know more about Kerberos.”

“I don’t want to leave.. you behind.” Hunk explains. You being Lance’s body way more than it’s actually Allura as herself.

Allura sighs. “Fine.” More help is better than none, anyways.

“We need to take out the guards first,” Allura explains. “They’ll try to stop us.”

“How exactly are we going to do that?” Pidge responds,”They have weapons, and we’re not exactly master fighters. Besides, we’re outnumbered.”

Allura is in fact a master fighter, as she had been trained by palace guards from a young age. But she does not say this. Even with her skill, Lance’s body is a lot weaker than hers and doesn’t hold the same muscle memory. And Pidge is right on them being outnumbered.

“Maybe we could get disguises?” Pidge then suggests.

“Okay, but how?” Hunk asks,”A distraction would work- probably better than disguises, no offense Pidge,”

“None taken.”

“But we still need a way how to distract-”

A loud sound cuts off in the distance, like an explosion, and Allura sees fire-

Fire like the one on Altea. It’s surrounding her, blazing higher and higher. Then she’s cold, being shoved in the cryopod and she sees her father and she’s awake in a place she doesn’t know, all alone and her planet is gone and her people are gone and her father is gone and she’s all alone all alone-

Something touches her, and she flinches. She stands, ready to fight, but she finds Hunk instead.

“Are you okay?” Hunk asks, eyebrows’ pinched together with a deep set frown. It’s sincere, so sincere. He still cares? Even though he knows she’s not Lance- that she practically stole his life?

“I’m fine,” Allura says swiftly. Hunk doesn’t seem convinced.

Pidge gives her a doubtful look, then points to the guards,”Look, they’re going after the explosion!”

Allura follows Pidge’s finger, to the lights in the distance, fire. She can feel fog inter her brain, could panic striking through her-

A warm hand on her shoulder, Hunk, still there, steady like a rock. Right, she’s okay. For now.

“What was that for?” Allura asks, looking around. She finds a vehicle heading for them fast- and it doesn’t look like a garrison vehicle.

“There’s your distraction,” Allura says to Hunk, and she finds herself smiling despites herself. This is the first time sense Altea burned that the universe seemed to be working in her favor. (How long would that last?)

“Okay, yeah, but who else would want to save Shiro?” Hunk asks.

Pidge holds up his binoculars, trying to get a look.  
It dawns on Hunk and Allura at the same time. “Keith!”

“Who’s Keith?” Pidge asks.

“He’s my rival from school,” Allura responds, and she looks back at the tent. The guards are gone, but there’s probably still some people in there, but not at many. Perhaps enough that she could take on?

“Your rival?” Pidge asks back to Allura, but she’s already running off to the tent. Allura hears,”Seriously, again?” and footsteps follow after.

There’s only three people inside, and none of them seem suited for a fight. Allura acts quickly, and manages to take out two. She turns around to take out another, but she sees Hunk’s fist collide with their face, and they drop.

“Please don’t make me do that again,” Hunk winces.

“Once we get Shiro out of here and he’s awake again, I doubt you’ll have to,” Allura responds, and she moves to the side of Shiro to examine him. Pidge goes to Shiro’s arm to examine it, and Hunk watches the door.

A man wearing a red bandana, obscuring his face, barges in. At the sight off the three and three technicians out cold, he stops.

“- No, no I- I’m saving Shiro,” the man, presumably Keith, says, dumbfounded.

“We’re saving Shiro,” Pidge corrects, and now he’s fiddling with the bands around Shiro’s arms, trying to figure out how to get them undone.

“Who are you?” Keith asks.

“That’s Pidge,” Allura gestures to him,” And that’s Hunk,” Allura gestures to him too. Allura offers her hand to Keith,”My name is A- Lance. My name is Lance.”

Allura sees Hunk’s eyes narrow out of the corner of her vision.

“Wait… were you a cargo pilot?” Keith asks. Allura nods. Lance was.

“Okay, as nice as this is, getting to know each other and all, you do realize the Garrison is coming back any minute now right? I don’t know about you but I really don’t want to be here when they come back.” Hunk shuffles besides the doorway.

Keith’s eyes narrow, and it’s like he teleports forward as he crosses to Shiro. He pulls out a knife, and quick as lightning he cuts off the bands tying Shiro down. Allura picks up half of Shiro, and Keith picks up the other.

“Do you mind if we ride out with you?” Allura asks Keith. It’s not like they came with a vehicle.

Keith looks in between Allura, the others, and Shiro and back again. “Fine,” he growls out.

They barely manage to all get on Keith’s hovercraft, and Shiro is given over to Hunk. The Garrison is coming quick, and they speed off. The Garrison vehicles are catching up, and Keith is heading straight for a clift.

“What - what are you doing?!” Hunk asks, and Keith ignores him. “I’m pretty sure that fall could kill us.”

Keith smirks, and the hovercraft picks up speed. “Shut up and trust me.” They go off the clift.

Keith pulls up just before they crash, floating just above the desert sand. Allura looks up to see the Garrison vehicles stopped at the edge of the clift.

They make it to Keith’s shack, with no more interruptions.

\--

The next morning, them having all slept spread across Keith’s shack, Shiro awakes. Keith gets to him first.

Once Keith and Shiro leave the shack, Hunk turns to her.

"Okay, Lance, we need to talk." Hunk stresses, looking particularly angry, and particularly not like himself- or at least not like who Allura was led to believe.

Pidge, who had been snooping around Keith's shack, alerts at Hunk's words, focusing his attention onto Allura.

Allura refuses the urge to swallow. Having Hunk, who's generally rather timid but always incredibly kind, fixing her with a gaze like this- blazing and uncompromising- it unnerves her. Having Pidge watch her too, it feels like she's under a microscope. She can't let them know she's afraid though, she can't let them get to her. She is a princess, (princess? a cold voice in her mind whispers, princess of what?) she must keep her strength.

"You're not Lance," Hunk states. There's no question to it all, he just states it like he knows, with that same rough, angry, suspicious tone. "You've been acting weird since you've returned to the Garrison. You don't talk like yourself, you don't act like yourself. And I know you, you wouldn't take an etiquette class- even then that doesn't explain everything else. Like the way you forget stuff the real Lance would know. The way you know stuff that Lance wouldn't know. At first I thought you were Lance's soulmate- but that wouldn't make sense because why would Lance's soulmate pretend to be him? And the space stuff, like Voltron and the galra. I can't make sense of it. So what you have to do is tell me who you are, and what the fuck happened to my best friend."

Pidge's eyes widen, looking between the two.

"I am Lance's soulmate," Allura starts, voice lapsing back into her accent. She's not going to attempt to hide herself anymore, not sense Hunk already knows. "Or at least, I believe myself to be."

"You're british?" Pidge asks, raising an eyebrow.

Hunk lets out a breathe of relief, but just as baffling quickly he expression changes to unamused. "Even if you were the princess of England or whatever, that still doesn't explain stealing Lance's identity- okay actually, if you didn't want the responsibility or whatever comes with being princess of England, I could understand wanting to hide your identity. But- knowing Lance he'd probably use his newfound fame to make a big deal of finding you? So that's probably out... Anyways, I'm getting off topic here. Either way, that still doesn't explain the space stuff. It's not like you're from a space version of Great Britain."

"What is-?" Allura starts, but then stops. Whatever this "british" thing is isn't important. "I am a princess-" Allura pauses for a millisecond, (is she lying?), then continues,"-and I am from space. I am from the planet of Altea, and one day I woke up here on Earth, in the body of your friend, Lance. It was his 17th birthday."

"You're an alien..." Pidge says, eyes wide in awe.

"Okay that makes sense but- sorry, off topic, but what are your pronouns? Lance is bi so I don't want to assume you're a girl-

"She and her are fine, and my name is Allura."

"- thank you- and would actually explain the space stuff, but still it still doesn't explain why you took Lance's identity."

Allura takes a deep breath, cold spreading through her head, and tingling in her arms as she speaks, recounting her memory of the fall of Altea. "The Galra, a militant species, had went to war with Altea, planning on destroying the planet and all- all of my people." Allura pauses, grimacing. She must continue. "My father placed me in a cryopod so that I may sleep through the fight and awaken when it was over, but when I awoke, I was your friend, Lance. We have the technology to create wormholes, and I know my father would come for me- and as far as I know, so would your Lance. It has been several months sense Lance's birthday, I-"

Allura can't say it. She really can't say it.

"Altea was already not faring well when I was placed in the cryopod. I'm afraid Lance might-"

She can't.

"...Be... dead?" Hunk finishes for her, and any and all anger he had dissipates.

Allura nods. So is her planet. So is everyone she had ever loved. Ever even known. She does not say this to Hunk, she knows it's not important, that he won't get it.

But it's hard, really, to put the loss of something that might've been (not that she didn't feel it, like the cherry on top of a poisoned ice cream sundae) over what she did physically lose. And she lost a lot. She lost everything.

"I'm sorry," The words fall from her tongue, easy. "I know he meant a lot to you."

"...If you knew Lance was- "Hunk stops, and Allura knows that he can't say it either,"...Why did you pretend to be him?"

"I-" Allura starts, but she can't come up with anything other than the truth. "I don't know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keef is here and I am happy. 
> 
> But anyways, here's another chapter, and another cliffhanger. I don't know why this is so getting so longgg.


End file.
